by Clara Batton Smith

It is a well known that a horse with a single horn growing from of the center of its head is usually only found in fairy stories.  What about a giant whale with a single horn?  Could you only find one of those in fairy tales too?  No!   They can be found in the ocean and they are called Narwhals.

A Narwhal is a type of whale, related to the Beluga, who lives in the artic waters around Canada and Greenland.  Male narwhals have two teeth and the left tooth grows into a spiral like tusk which can be up to 8 ½ feet long.  Some female narwhals also grow tusks but they are much smaller than the males.  There have been cases of a male narwhal having two tusks but this is very rare.

Tusk Mystery

What are these tusks for?  Scientists are not quite sure.  Some say they may be for fighting off other boy narwhals.  Narwhals have been seen rubbing tusks together while whistling and it is believed this may be a way of one narwhal showing another who is boss.  The tusk also may be for impressing girl narwhals. Some scientists thought the tusk might be used for hunting but so far this has proven not to be the case

Deep Sea Divers

The unicorns of the sea aren’t only famous for their tusks.  Narwhals can dive down into the ocean 2,400 feet (800m) as many as 15-25 times per day. Some dives even reach up to 4,500 feet (1,500m) deep.  They have made some of the deepest dives by a marine mammal ever recorded.  This is made more impressive considering a narwhal can be as big as a bus.  Females grow up to 13 feet (4 m) while males grow up to 16 feet and 3,500 lbs (1,600kg)

Under Water Families

Narwhals love to have their friends and family around usually traveling around in pods of 5-20.  In some months several pods can gather together to forms groups into the hundreds.  Much like other whales and porpoises, they communicate with a variety of squeals, trills, whistles, and clicks.  Some scientists even think that just like humans each narwhal has his or her own individual speaking voice.

The Queen and the Unicorn

In Old Norse language Narwhal means “corpse whale”.  This comes from either the fact that sometimes narwhals swim belly up and very slowly or from their grey, molted skin color.  Back in the times Old Norse was spoken, Vikings used to sell the narwhal tusks claiming they were unicorn horns.  It is rumored that Queen Elizabeth paid 10,000pounds for a narwhal tusk in the 16th century.  In that day and age 10,000pounds would have been enough to buy an entire castle!  It’s illegal to trade whale ivory now but narwhals are still very valuable and important creatures.